Investigation of IGM and IGG antibody levels in a group of COVID-19 patients with and without chronic disease in Iraq

A novel Coronavirus known as COVID-19 appeared for the first time in Wuhan city in China. COVID-19 is one of the SARS viruses that affect the respiratory system. COVID-19 spread rapidly to over the world, it appeared in pat birds firstly and then transmitted to humans causing severe health problems. The present study aimed to determine the levels of anti- IgM and anti-IgG antibodies constituted against COVID-19, and to compare the levels of these antibodies in the studied groups involving individuals who do not have any chronic diseases and those who have chronic diseases such as heart disease and asthma patients compared to the healthy not infected individuals. A total of 120 serum samples were collected from all these studied groups after the 10th and 20th days. The sociodemographic and clinical information about these 120 individuals were also collected. The blood samples that collected and delivered to the laboratory to get the serum and then stored at -20 °C until starting the work, where all samples were tested for anti-IgM and IgG assessment using the commercial ELISA kit. The results showed that the older age means was in COVID-19 patients with asthma followed by the heat diseases group, and the COVID-19 patients without any chronic diseases group had the smallest age mean. Also, the results showed significantly increased levels of anti-IgM for all COVID-19 patients groups on the tenth day compared to the twentieth day (197.52 ± 24.49 vs. 133.22 ± 71.56 ng/mL for COVID-19 with heart disease group, 175.95 ± 19.62 vs. 97.15 ± 72.40 ng/mL for COVID-19 with asthma group and 157.47 ± 74.0 vs. 110.29 ± 77.93 ng/mL for COVID-19 without any chronic diseases group). The highest anti-IgM antibody level was in COVID-19 patients with the heart disease group followed by COVID-19 with the asthma group for the tenth and the twentieth days (197.52 ± 24.49 and 175.95 ± 19.62 ng/mL, respectively), while the level of anti-IgM antibody was highest in the COVID-19 patients with heart disease group followed by COVID-19 patients without any chronic diseases group (133.22 ± 71.56 and 110.29 ± 77.93 ng/mL, respectively), In addition, the mean level of anti-IgM antibody was non-significantly increased in males compared to females on the tenth day of collecting, while appeared different significant levels between the males and females on the twentieth day of collecting. Also, the mean level of anti-COVID-19 IgG antibody was significantly increased on the twentieth day compared to the tenth day of collection (399.99 ± 37.82 vs. 176.15 ± 34.03 ng/mL for COVID-19 patients with heart disease group, 367.75 ± 25.96 vs. 141.53 ± 61.76 ng/mL for COVID-19 patients with asthma group and 372.59 ± 55.16 vs. 178.74 ± 50.56 ng/mL for COVID-19 patients without any chronic diseases group). The highest level of anti-IgG antibody was in COVID-19 patients without any chronic diseases group followed by the COVID-19 patients with heart disease group on the tenth day (178.74 ± 50.56 and 176.15 ± 34.03 ng/mL respectively), while on the 20th day the highest anti-IgG antibody level was in COVID-19 patients with heart disease group (399.99 ± 37.82 and 372.59 ± 55.16 ng/mL respectively). In addition, the results showed non-significant decreased levels of anti-IgG antibody in males compared to females on the tenth day of collecting for the COVID-19 patients with heart disease and without any chronic diseases groups (170.26 ± 38.94 vs. 183.21 ± 29.75 ng/mL and 170.74 ± 32.77 vs. 188.34 ± 69.55 ng/mL respectively). While in COVID-19 patients with asthma, the results appeared a significantly increased level of anti-IgG antibody in males compared to females on the tenth day also (208.20 ± 49.0 vs. 128.19 ± 58.60 ng/mL). On the twentieth day, the results were similar to the results of the tenth day (400.63 ± 51.48 vs. 399.23 ± 16.18 ng/mL for COVID-19 patients with the heart disease group, 364.47 ± 73.70 vs. 382.33 ± 24.50 ng/mL for COVID-19 patients without any chronic diseases group and 408.10 ± 35.98 vs. 359.68 ± 18.82 ng/mL for COVID-19 patients with asthma group). In conclusion, the results of a total of 90 individuals who had COVID-19 showed that the older patients with asthma aged had high levels of anti-IgM and anti-IgG antibodies, and the youngest were the COVID-19 patients who also had high levels of anti-IgM and anti-IgG antibodies. There were various statistically significant differences in anti-IgM antibody levels between the tenth and the twentieth day. For anti-IgM antibody level, it was higher in males' groups compared to females in COVId-19 patients without any chronic diseases and asthma groups, while it appeared different